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On the sixth day after the death of Valentinian, the infant prince of the same name, who was only four years old, was shown, in the arms of his mother, to the legions; and solemnly invested, by military acclamation, with the titles and ensigns of supreme power. The impending dangers of a civil war were seasonably prevented by the wise and moderate conduct of the emperor Gratian.

Besides that happened, which would necessarily be the case, that the soldiers for the most part quitted their ensigns and hurried to seek and carry off from the baggage whatever each thought valuable, and all parts were filled with uproar and lamentation.

Grim tenants of chambers looking out for attorneys who never come? wretched physicians practising the stale joke of being called out of church until people no longer think fit even to laugh or to pity? Are there not hoary-headed midshipmen, antique ensigns growing mouldy upon fifty years' half-pay? Nay, are there not men who would pay anything to be employed rather than remain idle?

To them the man in authority, the supreme wielder of power, sits in the place of God. His fiat means to them weal or woe, happiness or misery. On days of ceremony, then, they expect that this all-powerful being shall display the ensigns of royalty, shall surround himself with the pomp and glitter which betoken state. Akbar thoroughly understood this and acted accordingly.

The tower is in a good taste, except being rather too narrow in the base, and is ornamented with a sleepy figure of the donor, Edward the Sixth, dressed in a royal mantle, with the ensigns of the Garter; holding a bible and sceptre.

A holy war was proclaimed, A.D. 1211, Heg. 608, and an innumerable army crowded around the ensigns of Mohammed, left the shores of Africa under the guidance of that monarch, and safely arrived in Andalusia.

The ship-cannon barked out in brave answer and hoisted ensigns likewise; but as Brian looked up at the flag overhead, his despondent mood was not heartened. The three-masted ship of the O'Malleys flew above him, where he had much rather flown the red hand of his own house.

As they expected that other fresh accounts would follow those which they had received, not only of the death, but even of the burial, of Scipio, and yet none arrived; and as the rumour which had been so idly originated began to die away, the first author of it began to be sought out; and each backing out in order that he might appear rather to have inconsiderately credited than to have fabricated such a report, the leaders were forsaken, and began now to dread their own ensigns of authority, and to apprehend that, instead of that empty show of command which they wore, a legitimate and rightful power would be turned against them.

Savages are not inspired by the most lovely scenery, and a collection of national airs from different parts of the world would not reveal to us whether they were written in valleys or on mountains or by the sounding seashore. There are distinct ensigns by which national music may be as promptly detected as a ship by its colors.

I am just sixteen, and I know there are some not older than that." This was a fact, for commissions were in those days given in the army to mere lads, and the ensigns were often no older than midshipmen.